P.S. 212 Lady Deborah Moody

The 2025 numbers — 58.8% ELA and 61.4% math — are the highest this school has posted in nearly a decade, and they come after a sharp recovery from a low 35% ELA showing in 2024. Both subjects now sit essentially at district parity (60% ELA, 63.2% math) rather than lagging behind. The longer arc is genuinely upward: ELA proficiency climbed from 38.2% in 2016 to nearly 59% in 2025, with most of the gains coming since 2019. The 2025 jump looks like a real inflection point, though one year of strong data deserves watching before anyone calls it a turn.

The day-to-day feel here is warm and tightly connected: 100% of teachers report strong relationships with students, and 99% of parents say they trust both their child's teacher and the principal. Discipline is essentially a non-issue — zero suspensions in each of the last two years, against a district average suspension rate of 0.5%. But chronic absenteeism at 63% is a real concern, well above what most families would consider healthy, and teacher-reported safety sits at 91%, below the district's 96.8%. The pattern points to families who love the school but struggle to get kids through the door every day.

P.S. 212 serves a student body that's majority Hispanic (37%) and Asian (34%), with a sizable White contingent (18%) and a smaller Black population (10%) — a mix that mirrors Gravesend's working-class, immigrant-rich character. Eighty percent of students qualify for economic need, putting it in the highest tier citywide, and 24% have IEPs. Despite tight household budgets, the PTA raised about $97 per student, well above the district's $78.56 average — a clear signal of families who show up and give what they can.

Gravesend is a dense, working-class stretch of southern Brooklyn with a median household income around $58,000 and a homeownership rate of just 37%, meaning most families rent. About 18% of households have children, and roughly 35% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher — a mixed economic and educational picture. The neighborhood has long-standing Chinese, Italian, and Russian Jewish roots alongside newer Hispanic and South Asian arrivals, which shows up directly in the school's demographics.

The D train at Bay 50 St is about a three-minute walk from the school, with the N at 86 St around 11 minutes and the D at 25 Av about 15 minutes away.